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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
In Vivo Quantitative Assessment of Myocardial Structure, Function, Perfusion and Viability Using Cardiac Micro-computed Tomography
Published on: February 16, 2016
Early abnormalities related to postinfarction Wallerian degeneration: evaluation with MR diffusion-weighted imaging
1Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill 27599-7510, USA.
Purpose:
Wallerian degeneration (WD) is most commonly seen after cerebral infarctions and results in persistent neurological deficits. MRI may detect changes related to WD as early as 4 weeks after the insult. We sought to determine if MR diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) detects changes of WD during the acute period that follows a cerebral infarction.
Method:
Eleven patients with cerebral infarctions underwent DWI within 72 h of the onset of symptoms. DWI was performed using a high diffusion gradient strength (B = 1,000) in a single axis and trace imaging. We reviewed all images with special attention to the signal intensity in the location of the corticospinal tracts.
Results:
Ten patients harbored 11 middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarcts, and one patient had an anterior cerebral artery (ACA) infarction. Only one patient with an MCA infarct showed a subtle abnormality in the ipsilateral corticospinal tract. The patient with the ACA infarct showed an abnormality in the region of the corticopontine tract.
Conclusion:
As used in this study, DWI depicted presumed early WD in only 20% of instances.
